Career Summary

Biography

Dr Susan Kerrigan is a Screen Production Scholar who specialises in creative screen practice through practice-led research. Susan is a current recipient of an ARC Linkage Grant entitled 'Creativity and Cultural Production: An Applied Ethnographic Study of New Entrepreneurial Systems in the Creative Industries'. She is a member of the Communication and Media Research (CAMR) group and is a member of the Hunter Centre for Creative Industries and Technology (HCIT). During 2012/2013 Susan was President of the Australian Screen Production, Education and Research Association (ASPERA) and in 2014 Susan convened the annual ASPERA Conference 'Screen Explosion'. Susan has examined PhDs and Masters (by reserach) for Screen Production, Screen writing and Television practices.

As a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Program Convenor for the Bachelor of Communication, she led the external review for the Bachelor of Communication Program in 2013. Susan’s teaching and research is informed by her past professional practice, as a TV Producer/Director for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where she worked on the iconic children’s program ‘Play School’. Susan has taught, over the last decade, multiple Screen Production courses in the Media Production Major for the Bachelor of Communication program. These include: Screenwriting Documentary and Drama, Media Production Television (multi-camera), Music Video, Screen Drama, Video and the final year course Media Production Project (20 units).

In 2010, Susan completed her PhD, on 'Creative Documentary Practice', she has presented this research at international conferences and has published internationally in the field of Creative Screen Practice. The creative work PhD investigated the Producer/Writer/Director's creative process for cross platform low budget documentary productions of two works titled 'Using Fort Scratchley' and 'Fort Scratchley a Living History' (www.fortscratchley.org). Susan has successfully supervised University Medalist's who received First Class Honours doing 'Creative Media Projects' where students can make a media project of their choice.

Susan's research is closely aligned with her past employment at ABC Television Sydney (1987-2003), where she worked across a variety of productions using multi-camera and single camera approaches. Susan produced and directed 20 episodes of Play School and 18 months of Mixy Breakfast Hostings. Other highlights include 40 hours of continuity credits on Australian Drama TV productions (including Wildside, GP, Big Sky) and 150 hours as a DA/PA on studio -based, live and pre-packaged television programming.

Research ExpertiseSusan researches 'creative labour' and 'creative screen labour', by applying creativity theories to film making practice. Creativity is an idea, process or product that is recognised, by individuals or groups as being unique, novel or innovative (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). The new knowledge created by this research helps to better explain the cultural and creative processes that practitioner's tacitly engage in during the making of screen/media works. This research is significant as it generates new knowledge and understandings which bridges the theory/practice nexus by aligning creative process theories (Bastick, 1982; Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Wallas, 1976) and cultural industries approaches (Hesmondhalgh, 2007) to film, television and media production personnel. This creative practice research can be conducted through a self-reflective methodological approach or using more traditional qualitative methods to investigate media practitioner's creative processes and practices. References: Bastick, T. (1982), Intuition, how we think and act, Chichester; New York: Wiley. Csikszentmihalyi (1999), Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity., In R. Stenberg (Ed.), Handbook of Creativity (pp. 313-335). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hesmondhalgh D (2007) The Cultural Industries. 2nd edition. London and Los Angeles: SAGE. Wallas, G. (1976), Stages in the Creative Process, In A. Rothenberg, & Hausman, C., (Ed.), The Creativity Question. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Teaching ExpertiseMy teaching is professionally focused in Communication and Media, with a specific interest in television and screen productions for students in the Bachelor of Communication Degree. Here is a list of courses that I have taught: CMNS3450 Media Production Project (double unit) CMNS3440 Media Production: Screen Drama CMNS3170 Screenwriting (Documentary) CMNS3180 Screenwriting (Drama) CMNS3500 Communication Professional Practice CMNS3310 Communication, Creativity and Cultural Production CMNS2040 Music Video CMNS2035 Media Production: Television CMNS1230 Foundations of Media Production CMNS1000 Introduction to Digital Communication CMNS1004 Media Production: Video

Administrative ExpertiseCurrently I am the Head of Discipline for Communication and previously I have been the Communication Program Convenor from 2011-2012 and I was the Deputy Program Convenor for 2013-2014. I lead the External Review for the Communication Degree in 2013.

CollaborationsSusan has collaborated with Dr Phillip McIntyre and Professor Mark Balnaves, on the ARC Linkage project "Creativity and Cultural Production in the Hunter". External to UoN, Susan has collaborated with Associate Professor Pieter Aquilia on Internationalising Screen Curriculum. As an active ASPERA member, Susan is collaborating with academics from QUT and RMIT on forthcoming publications about Screen Practice.

Qualifications

PhD (Communication & Media Arts), University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies), University of Newcastle

Graduate Certificate Practice of Tertiary Teaching, University of Newcastle

Keywords

Creativity

Documentary Practice

Media production

Screen Production

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

190499

Performing Arts and Creative Writing not elsewhere classified

20

200299

Cultural Studies not elsewhere classified

20

190299

Film, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classified

60

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Senior Lecturer

University of NewcastleSchool of Design Communication and ITAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/01/2014 - 31/12/2014

Conference Chair - Screen Explosion - 2014 ASPERA Conference

Screen Explosion - 2014 ASPERA Conference Australia

1/01/2009 - 31/12/2015

Membership - Australian Screen Production Education and Reserach Foundation

Australian Screen Production Education and Reserach FoundationAustralia

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Journal article (8 outputs)

Year

Citation

Altmetrics

Link

2015

Kerrigan S, Velikovsky J, 'Examining documentary transmedia narratives through The Living History of Fort Scratchley project', Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, (2015)

Conference (11 outputs)

Year

Citation

Altmetrics

Link

2014

McIntyre P, Balnaves M, Kerrigan SM, Williams C, King E, 'Creative industries in the Newcastle LGA: are they reliant on social media?', Refereed Proceedings of the 2014 ANZCA Conference: The digital and the social: communication for inclusion and exchange, Swinburne University of Technology (2014) [E1]

Oughton N, Kerrigan SM, Holt J, 'Managing occupational risk in the creative industries: A new perspective', New Screens, New Producers, New Learning. Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association Conference, Sydney, NSW (2010) [E3]

2010

Aquilia P, Chua LY, Kerrigan SM, 'Internationalising Australian media production curricula: A cross-cultural study', New Screens, New Producers, New Learning. Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association Conference, Sydney, NSW (2010) [E3]

Research Supervision

Current Supervision

Commenced

Research Title / Program / Supervisor Type

2015

Outside the Box: To what Extent does Contemporary Australian Prime Time Television Drama Perpetuate a Terra Nullius Viewpoint?Communication & Media Studies, Faculty of Science and Information TechnologyPrincipal Supervisor